"The Closing of the Fillmore" is one of the historical shows. It's known for it's length, and for having two songs included in the film Fillmore:The Last Days, whose soundtrack album was one of those 70s jigs that every other person seemed to have in their milk crates at the time, and yet went out of print and then disappeared. The 3xLP-format originally came with a 7" of Bill Graham talking. The film and soundtrack have more recently been given the polish and re-release.

This was a one-off show played for Bill Graham in between a one-off in France and a one-off in Connecticut. Looking at the packed set list (and Jer also did a set with NRPS) you might think this was one of the best shows of '71. It may not rank with, say, 4/28/71, 8/14/71, or 8/24/71, but there are some fine sections (shouldn't there be from a show this long?). Graham was closing the venue and threw a 5-day fest featuring Bay bands like Santana, Creedence, etc. The Rowans (still together today!) opened for the Dead; Jer and Bill then guested on their album. Graham moved up the date for closing his venues after a SFPD acid crackdown occurred at one of them. Filmed, FM-simulcasted, soundtrack agreement, sold-out shows; quite a lot for the time, place, and venue.

Jer has a great guitar tone (he was playing the Strat - before the "Alligator" mods), but one he didn't keep long. At the time they were playing Bertha, Deal, Bobby McGee, and GDtRFB pretty much every show. But this is mostly a Pig show, and he's the only one that was truly on. But the show is interesting, even if not top-heavy with sparks and best-of-'71 highlights. The band was so together in the Skull Fuck era, after completing American Beauty, that they were loose. Know whatta mean? Even shows where they obviously didn't have the machine at 100% still come out cohesive (they play out of tune at the top and don't tighten-up until late in the show). They were young and full of beans, playing, what 100 shows that year? Day-am.

1st Set:  B-
2nd Set: C+
Overall = 3¼ stars

Highlights (i. e. that should have been on the album):
The Rub - may be the equal of 5/15/70. The band catches (Pig's) fire and get in tune
Hard to Handle - Another one played almost every show, but everybody is on
Deal - not the monster it became, but great example of the '71 slower, funkier stylee
Mama Tried -  Jer finds a neat slot
Big Boss Man -  the biggest year for this, but this is still a '71 top 5

SOURCES: The clevenger_lai_fix-128_6193 sounds best. There's no difference between those labeled "pre-FM" and the rest. They all appear to be the signal from the board for the live-to-air radio, post-DJ, whether before broadcast or not. This one has less clicks and better spectrum & depth. The tunings and chatter are most complete on the 136638_pre-fm-GEMS. Fillmore The Last Days has Casey Jones & Johnny B Goode. Vid is on the similarly titled DVD Last Days of the Fillmore, and up on YouTube. JBG was also released as a 7" split single with Elvin Bishop

Despite likely being an FM source, this version sounds better than the "Pre-FM SBD" mixes.

...__[8]o

This is out there on other sources. I have gone thru and its a good one, worth the download and burn. The entire show is out there with radio ads etc. Pretty cool in FM soundbord quality. This for me is special because Pig shines.

We listened on FM that day